About this project:
During Southern Africa’s crippling drought from 2015-2018 Cape Town nearly reached Day Zero and risked running out of water. Mozambique experienced extensive flooding in 2017 and 2019. Many Africans lack access to clean safe water. Women and girls carry heavy burdens of water collection. These recurring water-related disasters and deprivation in the poor countries of Southern Africa are complex and not simply related to environmental hazards, underdevelopment or human-induced climate change in the twenty-first century.
This PhD is an exciting opportunity to undertake meaningful research to address urgent social and environmental water-related challenges to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals on health, clean water, sanitation, climate and the environment. You’ll be supervised by experts in human geography, gender studies, creative arts and Sub-Saharan Africa. Undertaking this PhD, you’ll engage in first hand fieldwork in South Africa’s coastal provinces.
You will help design and implement a multi-method, innovative, interdisciplinary arts and humanities methodology to approach the water crisis as a tangible and intangible entangled natural and cultural heritage. Women and girls will participate and interact with you in the research project to contribute to developing strategies to support their survival, dignity and to effectively address the water crisis.
Ideally, you’ll have a passion for social and environmental justice, be a rigorous scholar, creative and original thinker, as well as experienced in working with indigenous and diverse communities. We’re looking for someone enthusiastic to use creative arts (e.g. story-telling, dance, puppetry, film, theatre and drama) and humanities research methods (e.g. ethnography, interviews, focus groups) to find resilient solutions to gendered water crises.
Application deadline: 10 January 2022
For informal enquiries, please contact Dr Elsbeth Robson
This announcement is taken from University of Hull website.